A blog by students at the University of Portsmouth

Rewrite

One of the biggest things I’ve learned from my first year of American Studies is how important it is to give yourself some extra time before an essay deadline. Checking the work over before the hand-in never fails to reveal things which need to be changed or edited. Trying to make alterations ten minutes before the deadline caused the greatest amount of stress for me!

In my blogs, as in my essays, I have found that the first draft is never what ends up as the final version. Very often, much of what was originally written is altered and moved around so that little really remains of the first draft. Perhaps you would think this is just time wasted, rewriting essentially the same thing. Sometimes this feels like the case, but I am never satisfied until I convey what I really want to in my writing.

Often, I realise that I have overcomplicated my sentences and therefore lost clarity. I would rather present a good, clear article which has been thoroughly edited rather than submit a jumbled piece of work. Getting to the point in a clear and concise way is the best way to write.

Commencing a piece of writing is often the hardest part. Once you have some ideas ‘on paper’ at least you have a starting point (who writes essays on paper anymore?) From there, you can start editing, changing and adding to the work.

I suppose the trick to good writing is not actually being good at writing – it’s being good at rewriting what you’ve written!

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One thought on “Rewrite”

Zephyriasays:

I agree with u, Blake.

I have English Wrtting class every week, and my teacher also said we’d better rewrite the essays after sometime. Like when u finish ur writting, just check it, and then leave it alone, and after three days or later, read it and recheck it, in that way u can improve urself and ur essay.